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POLITICAL COLUMN

Party conventions' aura of unity

Simon says by 1860, conventions were about deal making and dirty tricks. | AP Photo

But D.K. Cartter, chairman of the Ohio delegation, a large man with black, bristling hair, his face marked by smallpox and his voice laboring from a speech impediment, entered history by standing and saying: “I arise, Mr. Chairman, to announce the change of four votes from Mr. Chase to Abraham Lincoln.”

“There was a noise in the Wigwam like the rush of a great wind,” an eyewitness wrote, and the crowd erupted with the “energy of insanity.”

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After a semblance of calm prevailed, Lincoln would walk calmly across the stage and, reading from notes, make his acceptance speech.

All of this is true, except for one thing. (And I am indebted to several sources, including “A History of the National Political Conventions of the Current Political Campaign” by M. Halstead, “an eyewitness of them all,” published in 1860; “How Lincoln Won the 1860 Republican Nomination” by Gordon Leidner, published in 1996; and “Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction” by Allen Guelzo, published in 2012.)

Lincoln never attended the 1860 Chicago convention. He never set foot in the Wigwam. He made no acceptance speech.

Lincoln learned of his nomination by telegraph in Springfield, Ill. He could have made the trip to Chicago; at some 200 miles away, it was not an arduous railroad journey. And history might have been altered if he had. A few blocks from the Wigwam, the hit play “Our American Cousin” was being performed at the McVickers Theater. Lincoln, a theater buff, might have stopped in to see it and, therefore, might have skipped its performance in Washington on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theater.

But presidential nominees did not go to conventions back then. The presidency was too grand an office for men to publicly scrabble after it. Instead, emissaries traveled by rail, boat and horseback in what came to be known as the “notification” ceremony to tell the thoroughly unsurprised nominees that they had been nominated.

While the notification ceremony was very civilized — if a little silly — it robbed the conventions of the crescendo they needed. In the old days, the purpose of the convention was to nominate a candidate. But as the years went by and that function was taken over by primaries, the purpose of the convention was to unify the party behind one standard-bearer.

That need for unity — and the demands of modern media — led, in 1932, to a daring act by a daring man. After winning the nomination on the fourth ballot, Franklin D. Roosevelt climbed aboard a “flying machine” — to the horror of his friends, who begged him not to risk his life in such a foolish contraption — and flew from Albany, N.Y., to Chicago to become the first man to accept a presidential nomination in person.

Roosevelt entered Chicago Stadium — the Wigwam was demolished in the late 1860s or the early 1870s — and told those assembled before him and those listening by radio, “You have nominated me, and I know it!”

He knew it; America knew it; and Roosevelt drew his party and the nation around him.

And by that one act, he assured that conventions would always have a purpose.

I think "unity" has a different meaning for Republican bigots in congress who today attempted to pass a bill banning government workers from helping anyone who doesn't speak perfect English. I think when they say "unity" they mean it in something similar to the way the Aryan Nation means it: Ryan J. Reilly August 2, 2012, 6:19 AM 14357

A Republican witness at today’s House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on legislation making English the official language of the United States is from an organization with ties to racism.

Dr. Rosalie Porter, chairwoman of the board of ProEnglish, is testifying in support of the “English Language Unity Act of 2011” before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution on Thursday morning.

ProEnglish is headed by executive director Robert Vandervoort, who came under fire for hosting a panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this year featuring Peter Brimelow of the website VDARE, an organization labeled as a white nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The panel also featured a speech from then-National Review editor John Derbyshire, who would later be fired from the magazine for writing a racist article in the wake of the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

Porter also spoke on the CPAC panel, where the immigrant and former bilingual teacher called bilingual education an “insane idea.”

Rep. Steve King (R), the sponsor of the bill (which has 120 cosponsors), spoke at the CPAC panel as well, where he complained that an unnamed Republican leader would not let him be floor manager of an English-only bill because he wasn’t an immigrant (it’s unclear if that has changed, King’s office did not respond to a request for comment). King will attend a press conference alongside ProEnglish after Thursday’s subcommittee hearing.

Vandervoort himself came under fire from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which labeled him a “white nationalist” for his alleged ties to the Chicagoland Friends of the American Renaissance. At the time, Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign downplayed Vandervoort’s attendance at a luncheon for the candidate. Vandervoort has previously denied the charge, telling TPM earlier this year that he had “never been affiliated with any group that promotes hate or violence.” Vandervoort didn’t respond to TPM’s interview request on Wednesday evening.

Democrats are slamming Republicans for spending time on a piece of legislation which could prevent non-English speakers from casting a ballot or interacting with their government.

“Are you really going to tell someone who came here from the Soviet Union that they shouldn’t vote because they have poor English language skills?” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said in a statement . “I really don’t think this country gains, and in fact I believe we are harmed, by excluding many good people from jointing the families who came from around the world to be part of this great nation.”

This is the most corrupt administration in American history. The democrats took control of Congress in 2006. They took control of our White House in 2008.

Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the other liberal democrats, along with the biased media, unions, Acorn and Soros based the entire 2008 campaign on lies. They have no problem working against the will of the American people.

Romney should make a deal.

Release 2009 records when Obama releases his transcripts and thesis from Harvard.

Release 2008 when Obama releases his transcripts from Occidental.

Release 2007 when Obama explains his Massachusetts Social Security number.